Your clients want to know you've been through struggles and come out the other end . They want to know what lights you up and what makes you cry.
Everyone's got a story, right? 

 Revealing this makes you more human and more trustworthy- people buy from those they trust. Given the choice between two individuals of equivalent technical or business skill, people will hire someone they feel they KNOW better.

Sometimes it takes only one introduction, such as hearing you on a teleseminar or meeting you at a networking event, before folks know you're the one they want to work with.

 The personal relationship that you develop  -- sometimes over years -- that leads to new business. That's what your blogs, newsletters and presentations are for!  

Getting personal is literally sharing parts of your personal, non-professional life with your readers and seminar attendees. Sometimes your personal note is related to a business message, and sometimes it's just not.

For example,  when I wrote about my experience of  my empty nest getting emptier- when my daughters each moved to Europe-  there was no business message. It was completely personal.  I share this story and many of my clients stories in my 2nd edition of my book,  SOAR! with Resilience™   and my presentations, too. Everyone's got a story, right?

 Writing about your personal life can feel scary at first. It did to me, too. But try it, and I can practically guarantee, over time, greater success in your business.
 

You know you WANT to write a book.  You know about all the benefits if you did write one, you know, reasons like:

 

• Gaining recognition
• Building your reputation and credibility
• Gaining respect from your peers
• Justify raising your rates
• Establishing yourself as an expert in your industry

 

But you still haven’t written it yet.  Why?  

Well, I’ve talked to a lot of people about writing a book and I’ve heard a lot of excuses.

Here are the top 5:

1.   There are so many books out there on the same topic.  Yes there are, but look at all those books, they’re selling aren’t they?  There are tons of books on training dogs.  Why do they sell? 

Everyone has their own way of doing things, things that they have tried and tested and that have worked for them as well as worked for the people who have tried them and had great results too.  Each has written it in their own voice, their unique language and it appeals to different people.

2.   If I spend all that time and effort, it will be wasted if a publisher won’t take it on.  Well, chances are good that a publisher won’t take on your book, not unless you are John Grisham.  But there are alternatives. 

For one thing, whether you get a publishing deal or not, they still want to see your marketing efforts.  They might pick up your book if you can show them there is a market for your book already and people are buying it. 

Also, self-publishing, is a very attractive alternative, especially since your get to keep all the rights to your work, no upfront fees as well as a lot of other benefits.

3.   I don’t know what to write.  What about writing what you already know, what you are an expert at?  You are an expert at what you do, people join your programs, buy your services, read your blogs and articles.  Writing a book isn’t easy for most people and if it was easy, more people would have done it.  But, there is a story in everyone.  Thing about what you know, what your passion is and how that can help others.  There’s your book.  Will it inspire, benefit or solve a problem? 

4.   I’ve started writing a book, but it just doesn’t sound the way I want it to.  The best way to NOT write a book is to edit it before you have written it.  Yes, there is a process for writing, but editing it isn’t YOUR part of it.  That’s what editors are for.  Look at your blogs and articles.  Don’t be something you aren’t.  Write your book the same way.

5.   I just don’t have the time!  Chances that you have enough money to just sit and write for weeks, months or even years without working are pretty slim.  You probably have a business you are running, not to mention everything that goes along with that.  This is probably the most frustrating thing for people that do want to write a book, finding the time to do it.  If you set aside time each day or week, you can get it done.  It’s a process, just like everything else.

If you think the benefits of writing a book outweigh the reasons not to, then renew your dedication to get it done.  There isn’t an expiration date on your book.  It’s not too late to get it done.


Free Tele-class November 9, 2011 Self Publishing Options The Best Kept Secrets in the Industry Will Save You Time and Money! Join me on this call I give you all secrets not just a teaser.
 
 

You can also email me at ana@repurposeforprofit.com and schedule a complimentary Strategy Session.

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Related Article: The Top Three Reasons Your Free Gift for Your Opt-In Needs to be Killer.  

Hollywood has been repurposing content for years.

 They’ve taken books, comic books, older movies and repurposed them into new movies, to appeal to today’s audience of movie goers’.  

Here is a great example: 

Let‘s take a look at the book The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum, written in 1980.  It is a great book and I loved it.  I actually loved the whole series.  I was really excited when I saw the previews for the movie they released a few years ago and couldn’t wait to see it. 

The first five minutes of the movie were pretty close to the book, but after that, even though some of the characters were the same, and the plot was more or less the same, it was completely different than the book.  My husband, who hadn’t read the book, absolutely loved the movie.  I have to say that I enjoyed it myself too.  Hollywood has a great way of repurposing books and movies, so why not repurpose your content?

On average, 30 books a year are created into a motion picture. 

Look at the Sorcerer’s Apprentice for example.  Originally written as a poem in 1797, Disney repurposed that poem into the movie Fantasia starring Mickey Mouse and then repurposed it again in 2010 as The Sorcerer’s Apprentice starring Nicholas Cage.  Think about how repurposing that original poem has gained a brand new audience. 
 

Another great example is the Harry Potter series.  The books were a huge success but the movie’s helped bring it to a whole new audience.  The same goes for all the Marvel Comic book movies that have come out the last few year, including Thor, Ironman, Batman, Superman and The Hulk, just to mention a few.  These have been repurposed to be current and have gained an entirely new audience.  A lot of us probably read those comics as kids and now our kids are the new audience.

Now if you are wondering how that relates to your blog posts or articles, think about this: 

If you wrote a post 6 months ago or a year ago, has any of the information changed?  If you were writing about social media 1 year ago, or even a few months ago, things have certainly changed since then. 

You can repurpose your blog to be current, to appeal to your audience today.  Same thinking applies to repurposing into different formats.  With the changes to technology, posting a blog as a video or audio can appeal to a whole new audience.

Look at it this way, my husband is not a big reader.  He would rather watch a movie or listen to an audio than read.  I would rather read.  Completely different audience.

Repurposing your blogs or articles, giving them a new twist or coming at them from a different perspective doesn’t change the impact they can have, in fact, it can help you reach a larger market.  This is especially true if you repurpose into various formats. 

Take a look at your blogs and articles in your archives and see what you can repurpose and update to reach a whole new audience for your business.  I think you’ll be surprised at what you have. I have a lot of great tips how to do this in my free e-book Repurpose for Profit take a look at how I put my e-book together. 

Related Article: Easy Tips for  Re-purposing your Articles to write your book.

In a recent blog post, I suggested that one way to make a little quick cash, if you’re a good writer, is to write articles. But I also emphasized the “little” aspect of it. Unless you luck into writing articles for a really wonderful client, you will not find many people willing to pay well for articles.

Why? Two reasons:
1.) Supply and demand. Unfortunately, excellent writers who are seeking work are a dime a dozen tehse days. Not only has this economy flooded the market with people desperate to make an extra buck - many of them people who formerly worked as journalists or teachers, so they know how to write - but thanks to the internet, you are competing against people from developing countries who may charge as little as $1 an article.

 2.) Many people are seeking affordable articles, not quality articles.
A lot of people who seek article writers want to fill up blogs or websites with content, any content, as long as that content is stuffed with keywords. They want to use those articles to make money from adsense or other programs, or they want to use the articles for SEO purposes.

They aren’t using the articles to build up their personal brand, so they don’t care less about whether the articles are well written or not; they make their profit by buying content in bulk, basically. It can be really challenging to find people willing to pay more than $5 to write an article or blog post.

Which is ridiculous money and not worth the effort. If you’re trying to make a living writing articles, and you are a good writer...I can just about guarantee that you’re not being paid what you’re worth. S

So you should just give up, right? Find some other way to make money? Well, no. I have used my writing skills to build up a solid online business. I know plenty of people who make a great living with their blogs and web sites and have done the same. It can be done. Here are some tips to help you do the same:

• Write a few articles cheaply to get testimonials about your writing skills - and then move on! Writing articles full time is no way to earn a living wage these days.
• Write content that pays well. People pay more for: press releases, ebooks, ghostwriting, memoirs, white papers.
• Use your content to fill up your website and get people to come to your website, by giving away useful information. Then, when you have decent traffic, put adsense, affiliate ads, and banner ads on your site.
• Create info products about what you know and sell multiple short ebooks.
• Always use your writing to generate multiple streams of income. You will have busy months in some areas, and slow months in some areas. Ebooks will be selling well one month, and not the next month. Your affiliate sales will be ebb and flow. 

And now, the shameless self promotion part of this blog post. Dawn Abraham is a copywriting genius who’s written articles that generated as much as $9000 in adsense income. That’s more money than most published authors make for writing an entire book these days.

And when it comes to finding ways to make money from my writing, I’m not too shabby myself, if I do say so myself. We are teaming up to teach a teleclass which will take you step by step through how write articles that generate multiple streams of income. And I guarantee you this: If you pay attention in class, and follow the blueprint we lay out for you - you WILL make money with your writing! How to Make Waaay More Money With Your  Articles.  

I just had a great experience with a freelance coder, and I’d like to share a few tips on hiring freelancers online. I personally find that on a regular basis, I need to tweak my websites, add pages, experiment, etc., and I am not tech-y at all.  I also like to try out new business models from time to time, which involves having a premium wordpress theme customized to my specifications and uploaded for me.

I have used a number of websites to find freelancers, and for the most part my experiences have been positive. I’ve never hired anyone truly awful. I’ve hired a few people whose skills weren’t up to what I needed, and for that reason I wouldn’t hire them again, but I have also hired a lot of people who were extremely talented and worked for very reasonable prices.

Here are some things that freelancers can do for you:

• Write articles and blog posts
• Design websites
• Customize wordpress blogs and other types of blogs
• Add new pages to your website, like a “products” or “services” page
• Add plugins
• Write ebooks
• Design ebook covers
• Create apps for you
• Do social media marketing for you

Here are the sites I’ve used to find freelancers:

www.odesk.com
www.vworker.com (I used it when it was rent-a-coder.com)
www.elance.com
www.guru.com

These two sites are internet marketing related, but they have sections on their sites where freelancers offer their services, and I have had GREAT success hiring freelancers from there:
www.thewarriorforum.com
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/

And here’s a site that I’ve never used, but I’ve heard a lot about: http://fiverr.com/

And here are some tips on not getting burned by freelancers:

1.) Pay fairly. Don’t cheap out. All you’ll get is a freelancer who is resentful and not particularly inspired to give you their best.  Take it from me – I’m a freelancer.

2.) Ask to see samples or a portfolio of their work.

3.) VERY important – check to see how many recommendations they have. I know this makes it hard for people to get started as a brand new freelancer – but I don’t hire freelancers for anything expensive unless they have a lot of positive comments/reviews/ratings. And if that freelancer does a great job for you – help them out by offering to go back on the site and give them an excellent rating.

4.) If it’s an expensive job – sites like elance.com and odesk.com and guru.com and vworker.com have an escrow system – you pay the site, not the worker – and the site holds on to the money until the job is completed to your satisfaction.  With sites like The Warrior Forum and Digital Point – if it’s a big project, I would offer to pay in stages. Maybe 1/3 up front, they finish 1/3, you pay them the second installment…this isn’t for $25 jobs, mind you.

5.) Make sure the terms are agreed on up front. What EXACTLY do you want the freelancer to do for you? Don’t go in and try to add more tasks to the project, unless you offer to pay them for it.  When will they complete it by? What happens if they are late?

6.) After they are completed – consider changing your passwords to the sites they fixed up. Not because THEY are untrustworthy – but who else has access to their laptop? What happens when they throw away or sell their laptop? (or desktop. or tablet). It’s always better to be safe than sorry.

And finally…if they did a great job, consider paying them a bonus! Or at least pay them a little more than you originally agreed to. I do – and it makes for a happy, appreciative freelancer who will work very hard for you the next time you hire them.

Related Article: How to Make Money with Your Articles.

What’s the one thing that most people do every day?  Well, unless you live in a cave at the top of some isolated mountain top (I guess you wouldn’t be reading this if you were) then the answer is “talk.”

Yes, talking, having conversations.  Conversations with your family, friends, and colleagues and of course, your clients. 

Whether it’s on the phone, by email, social media or in person, you are probably having at least one conversation a day, even if it’s with yourself!

This exchange of words, sentences, questions, comments or feedback can be one of your best sources for creating new content.

Conversations can help you generate new ideas and content for your blog, articles for your ezine, ideas for new classes, products or programs. 

I was recently speaking with a colleague and we were discussing an upcoming teleseminar that I was going to be involved in and she said something, can’t remember exactly what it was, but it sparked an idea.

That idea evolved into a new program I am developing for my business!

Not only that, it also inspired the idea for this post and some very cool tweets!  Ah, repurposing at its finest!

There is a good chance that I may have eventually come up with the idea on my own, but the point is, sometimes we are so close to what we do, that we don’t always see everything.  Conversations with others can really open our eyes to how they see things and what we may be missing.  

As a matter of fact, if you are having a conversation with someone and they ask if you do XYZ and you don’t, it could just give you an idea about creating it, or if you already thought about it, but didn’t think there was any interest, it could be just the spark you are looking for to get it going.

So here are 5 tips on where to look for ideas:

• Conversations with potential clients.  What are they asking you?  What are they telling you?
• Emails you receive asking questions about your products, services and how you work.  Do you get a lot of questions? These could be a great blog or blog series.
• Questions from participants on teleseminars, workshops or events.  These are great questions, because chances are that the person who asked, wasn’t the only person who wanted the information.  Great chance to post a blog or write an article to address it.
• Having coffee or lunch with colleagues or clients. 
• Comments on your blog. 

Anytime you are having a conversation, it’s an opportunity to get new ideas.  Repurposing your conversations and writing new articles or blogs, or using those conversations to inspire you into creating new products or programs, is another way to help build your business.  Think about this the next time you are speaking with someone.  I think you’ll be amazed at what you come up with.  Do you want more great ideas on how to take what you have and turn it into the book you know you need to write then get  My FREE Book 3 Keys to Generate Revenue by Leveraging Your Expertise. Find out how easy it is to repurpose your content and write your BOOK. 

I’d love to hear your thoughts.


Related Article: How to Make Money with Your Articles.
 

I’m a former newspaper reporter, so when I left the daily journalism business, it made sense for me to find ways to make my money with content. Which is how I make my living. Here are five ways to make money with your articles:

1.) The first step, and the most important one, is to fill up your website or blog with well written articles which show your expertise. Are you an expert in show dog grooming? Vegan cooking? Building big biceps? Write blog posts offering free tips. Show people that you know your stuff. This will ensure that people can find your website in the search engines, and when they arrive at your website they will read your blog posts and immediately see that you are an expert in your field.

2.) Sell your articles. Now, I will say flat out – articles are THE lowest paying form of writing on the internet. However, there are some advantages to selling your articles on websites like fiverr, odesk, elance, www.thewarriorforum.com, etc. It allows you to get your name out there and gather testimonials which you can feature on your website, so that you can start promoting better paid writing services – like ghostwriting ebooks, writing press releases, etc. And it can bring in some quick cash if you are hard up for cash flow.

3.) Adsense. I have created adsense sites that earned a few hundred dollars in passive income every month, and then after a couple of years of consistent earnings, sold them for thousands of dollars. How to do that is an entirely different story and would take up more time and space than I have here, but I will address it in future posts.

4.) Advertising on YOUR site. If you have a website full of well written content on a popular topic, and you build up a decent amount of traffic to your site, you can sell advertising on your website.

5.) Use your well written content to write guest posts on other people’s blogs, and drive traffic back to your website, where of course you have excellent products and services ready to sell. Writing guest posts and having them featured on popular blogs is an extremely effective way to expand your audience and reach new customers.
 
If you would like to know even more and find out the rest of my money making  secrets I invite you to  join me and Dawn Abraham Awarding Winning Marketing Guru to our  "How to Write an Article that People Love and Google Needs and You Rake in the Money Workshop."  

Where we take you through our proven method for writing articles that postion you as  an leading expert in your  industry and  drive web vistors to buy your products all the while your article is earning you passive income.  Sign up now there ias only a couple more days left of the early bird 50%  off special.  See you there. 

What do people write about?  Things they know.  The more they know about something, the more they write about it.  Pretty simple.  All their articles and blogs are related to things they are an expert at.

So how come, when it comes to writing their book, they don’t know what to say?

There seems to be this misconception when it comes to writing a book: they need to sound a certain way or write about something that no one else has.  To be unique and original.

First of all, needing to sound a certain way means to write in a way that isn’t YOU.  This means you aren’t being authentic.

Second of all - News Flash: There is nothing new to write about.  Really! 

So what are people writing about? 

They write about what they know and how they do it.  It’s written from their perspective, in their voice, with their experience.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of books out there about how to sell, market, grow a garden, dieting, exercising, etc.  They are selling.  Why?  Because every author writes about how to do something from their own unique way of doing it and what their results were.  They tell their story of how it got them, or people that they worked with, from where they were to where they are now.  They wrote about what they know.

We all take ideas from other people and make them our own, in whatever works for us.  Take my coach for example.  She has a coach and her coach has a coach.  They each teach ways to do things in their business that has worked for them.

 

Now, my coach will give me her thoughts and ideas on how she market’s her business and I take those and use them in the way that I feel works best for me to market my business.  I’m not her.  What works for her doesn’t necessarily work for me.  But I can take the general idea and make it work in a way that is comfortable for me. 

 

Her ideas aren’t unique in that they came from someone else, but they are unique in the way that she applies them in her business, they same way I do in mine.

So when you are thinking about what to write your book about, look no further than what you have already written.  The blogs and articles you have already written are the basis for your book.  Neat huh?

If you still need help with how to put this all together, you are more than welcome to give me a buzz and I can certainly help you write the book you have already written.  Do you need more ideas I have a Free e-book that everyone compliments me about. 

Free E-book: Repurpose for Profit: 3 Keys to Generate Revenue by Leveraging Your Expertise

 

 

Related Article:  Does the idea of a book sound better than writing it ?  How to write your book in less than a week. 

Leverage your time and your expertise.  Writing a book can do a lot for you and your business.    It’s probably something you’ve either thought about or have started, maybe you finished a rough draft, maybe not.  Interestingly enough, 81% of people have stated they want to write a book, but only 1% actually write one.

Most people I talk to get overwhelmed with just the thought of what writing a book entails.  I get it.  It’s a lot of work, it takes time and they aren’t sure it’s worth all the effort.  Depending on what you want to accomplish, it most certainly can be. 

The top two reasons why someone hasn’t written a book are:

1.    Don’t have the time to write it
2.    It’s already been written about

So let’s start with #1.

You probably already have a successful business.  You have clients, you have money, you work hard at building your business.  But there comes a point where it’s time to make a move, extend your reach and build your reputation on a much bigger level and writing a book can certainly help you do that.

Writing a book takes time and effort.  To actually think that you would have to make time in your day to start writing means you have to cut back on other things you already do.  You would have to cut back on time working with your clients, sales and marketing, whatever you choose in order to make time to write book, or you add more hours to your already busy day.

It may not fly off the shelves when you finish it and books have never been what generate money in a business, not in any meaningful amounts, unless you are John Grisham or Stephen King.  Maybe that’s part of the problem, people think that if they write a book, the money will come pouring in, or maybe they are worried it won’t.  It may still do that, but chances that it’s coming from the book are not that likely.

Books can be part of your strategy to build your business.  They can help you build your list but writing a book is primarily a way to build your reputation and credibility.  Those two things are what lead to speaking engagements and more clients and, in turn, those lead to greater revenue.  Make sense?

#2 – It’s already been written about.

There isn’t a whole lot that’s unique out there, in a way.  What is unique is YOU!  The way YOU say it, the way YOU do it.  No one else says it or does it like you do.  There are people who love the way YOU do it and say it.  That’s what can make your book different from all the rest.

So here’s the problem:  You want to build your reputation and your credibility, but you need to write a book.  You need time to write a book, but with all of your commitments to your business, something’s got to give.

But it doesn’t have to be that difficult.  More than likely, you spend a portion of your week writing content in one form or the other.  Whether its articles, blogs, programs, copy for teleseminars, etc., you are already writing every day, or most days.  Based on what you write, you are an expert at what you do.  People are reading, commenting, following and working with you because they like what you have to say and the way you say it.  You have satisfied customers that write testimonials for the work you do.

And if you were to start writing a book, you could use a lot of that content as a resource.

By repurposing the content you already have, you can get a lot further in starting and finishing your book, and a lot quicker and easier than you ever thought.

Take a look at all your content.  Your book is in there.  It’s just in pieces that need to be put together. 

Stop Pushing Your Book and Start Driving it!  Write The Book You Already Wrote, But Just Didn’t Know It with My Re-purpose Your Content Free Teleclass. on Sept. 13,2011. Sign up now.